Mesonyx

Mesonyx is an extinct genus of mesonychid, one of two families that is part of the extinct order Mesonychia. Mesonychians were a clade of hoofed mammals closely related to ungulates, that first appeared in the fossil record during the Early Paleocene, roughly 63 million years ago. However, the order is thought to have arisen in the Late Cretaceous at least 66.7 Ma.

Mesonyx

Uncredited · CC0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MesonychinaePBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Mesonychidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Mesonychidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Length
1.5 mWikidata
Mass
55 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 2.1 million years on record.

The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 45.9 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 37.71 Mya.

Paleocene — about 0 of 16 occurrencesEocene — about 16 of 16 occurrencesEocene57–56 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences56–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–55 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences55–54 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences54–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–53 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences53–52 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences52–51 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences51–51 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences51–50 Mya — about 1 occurrence50–49 Mya — about 1 occurrence49–49 Mya — about 1 occurrence49–48 Mya — about 1 occurrence48–47 Mya — about 1 occurrence47–47 Mya — about 1 occurrence47–46 Mya — about 1 occurrence46–46 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences46–45 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences45–44 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences44–44 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences44–43 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences43–42 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences42–42 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences42–41 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences41–40 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences40–40 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences40–39 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences39–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–38 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences38–37 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48.07 Mya – 45.9 Mya56.5 Mya37.2 Mya

16 occurrences of Mesonyx on record, most of them in the Eocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

16 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

10 formations

Bridger — 41.20°N, 110.50°WUinta — 40.20°N, 109.90°WHuerfano — 37.80°N, 105.10°WUqbulak — 46.27°N, 88.02°EGreen River — 41.20°N, 110.50°WAycross — 43.70°N, 108.70°WWashakie — 40.60°N, 108.10°WWasatch — 42.37°N, 108.91°WArshantho — 43.37°N, 110.75°EArshanto — 40.00°N, 111.00°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mesonyx has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Mesonyx and its relatives

Eocene

Where Mesonyx and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

302 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Mesonyx, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

12 references

Each of the 16 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Mesonyx

Credit
nobody named on the record
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Mesonyx obtusidens · amnh:fm:12643

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMesonychinae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Cope 1872